Prevalence and trends for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living with cerebral palsy: A birds-eye view.
Tanya Martin, Sarah McIntyre, Emma Waight and 6 others
PMID 37147854WHAT IT FOUND
Most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with cerebral palsy live in urban or regional areas, but one in five are in remote locations.
Birth prevalence declined recently, though not significantly, while preterm rates remained stable. This data supports culturally safe, accessible services in both city and remote settings.
Key findings
01514 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with cerebral palsy were identified in the register for birth years 1995 to 2014.
02While 72% of these children lived in urban or regional areas, 28% lived in remote or very remote areas.
03The birth prevalence of prenatally or perinatally acquired cerebral palsy declined to 1.9 per 1000 live births in recent years, but this trend was not statistically significant.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
States with the highest proportions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had incomplete data ascertainment at the time of extraction, limiting the ability to perform Australia-wide trend analyses. The register historically collected maternal Indigenous status rather than the child's, which may have led to under-reporting of cerebral palsy frequency in this population. Age at diagnosis could not be reported due to excessive missing data. There may be underestimates of intellectual, speech, and visual impairments in regions where culturally safe assessment services do not exist.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation, the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, and various state health departments and charitable organizations. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the observed decline in cerebral palsy birth prevalence as a proven success of public health interventions, as the trend was not statistically significant (p = 0.09) and may be influenced by incomplete data ascertainment in some states.